František Kriegel

František Kriegel monument in Prague.

František Kriegel (born April 10, 1908 in Stanislau , † December 3, 1979 in Prague ) was a reform communist politician in Czechoslovakia . The Kriegel Prize has been awarded annually in his honor since 1987.

Life

Kriegel's father was Austrian. His mother was Jewish. He grew up in a multinational environment. Galicia was predominantly populated by various Slavic peoples - Ukrainians, Russians, Poles and Czechs - and until 1919 belonged to the Austrian half of the ku k. Monarchy and from 1919 to Poland .

A study at a Polish university was denied to the Jewish-born Kriegel due to a numerus clausus with an anti-Semitic interpretation and so he enrolled at the German Charles University in Prague to study medicine . Between 1934 and 1936 he then practiced at the Internal Clinic in Prague.

In 1936, after the coup of the clerical-fascist forces under Franco , he went to Spain and fought in the ranks of the International Brigades on the side of the Second Spanish Republic . In 1939 Major Kriegel left Spain together with the defeated republican units and was apparently only temporarily interned in France. He was one of the few who escaped this tragedy.

In 1940 he appeared on the side of the Chinese Red Army under Mao Zedong in China . His Far Eastern episode ended in Burma in 1945 alongside the US Army in the fight against the Japanese .

In 1945 he returned to Czechoslovakia and became active in the ČKD Sokolovo . He became a leading member of KSČ Praha. During the clashes between the bourgeoisie and the KSČ in February 1948, he played a leading role as commissar of the People's Militia in Prague. He also became acquainted with other later protagonists of the Prague Spring such as Josef Smrkovský .

In 1949 and 1950 he became Deputy Minister of Health and was responsible for implementing his party's agenda in this area. In the 1950s he ran into problems in the struggle against Zionism . Between 1963 and 1969 he was a health consultant in Cuba and worked closely with Fidel Castro .

In the 1960s he rose to the management circles of KSČ. In 1968, as chairman of the National Front, he played a leading role in the Prague Spring - a search for a third way beyond Stalinism. After the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops , he and the entire leadership - Alexander Dubček , Oldřich Černík , Josef Smrkovský, J. Špaček, B. Šimon, Ludvík Svoboda - were brought to Moscow . As the only member of the Czechoslovak delegation, he refused to sign the Moscow Protocol , which came about under the dictates of the Moscow party leadership and marked the end of the Prague Spring. In October 1968 he voted against the treaty on the "provisional stationing" of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia.

In 1969 he was expelled from the KSČ. In 1977 he signed Charter 77 . He was monitored by the State Security and died in 1979 in poor material conditions.

literature

• František Kriegel , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 03/1980 of January 7, 1980, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kriegel Prize from the Charter 77 Foundation